Bioethics

Transhumanists as Nietzche’s Children

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC You are going to die. How’s that for a cheerful lede? But it is true. You are going to die. So am I. No escape. Deal with it constructively. Some say that when humans became aware of death, we invented religion for that precise purpose. [...]

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Obama’s Ethically Challenged “Bioeconomy Blueprint”

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Central Control has released the “National Bioeconomy Blueprint” that outlines how the sector can transform our struggling economy into soaring prosperity, and how the government-business partnership will make that happen. Perhaps, but why do I keep seeing visions of the public money vacuum Solyndra dancing [...]

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NICE Wants UK Docs to ^ Pain Control

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The UK’s rationing board, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) wants doctors to use more pain control. From the BBC story: NICE wants doctors in England and Wales to make more use of morphine and other strong opioids — the only adequate pain relief [...]

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All +50 Ordered to Take Statins?

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC We are individuals, not statistics. But don’t tell that to the healthcare technocrats, who are now strongly urging that the NHS give all people over 50 prescribed statin drugs to lower the risk of heart attack — even people who don’t have any apparent need [...]

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Bioethicists Fraternizing With the Enemy

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Oh dear. Carl Elliot, a bioethics professor, has written a blistering critique of his own field in the Chronicles of Higher Education. Elliot is angry because Pfizer has created a fellowship in bioethics and has takers, which he views as fraternizing with the enemy. From [...]

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No, Bioethicists Can’t Ride to the Rescue

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I warned in Culture of Death: The Assault on Medial Ethics in America that the bioethics movement had ambitions to influence life and public policy well beyond its sphere of influence in medicine and health-related laws and regulations. The title of an article published in [...]

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Excellent Book Review

The Brave Lass, a freelance writer in Colorado, gives a close reading to Ellen Painter Dollar’s new book, No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction, and finds it wanting. From the conclusion: Ellen Painter Dollar’s story is deeply moving, but when she attempts to move into [...]

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Right to Induce Early Birth So Dying Father Can See Baby?

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I saw a story this morning that created a conflict between my heart and my head. An imminently dying man and his pregnant wife wanted him to be able to hold their baby before passing. And so, doctors agreed to induce a two-week early birth [...]

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See It Now! Bioethics 2012

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Fresh off a very successful year of predicting the future in 2011, I now find myself forced to once again risk my laurels, peer into my crystal ball, and tell you what will happen in the world of bioethics in 2012. What I foresee hurts [...]

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Just Change My Name to Nostradamus

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC It’s that time of year I dread every time it comes around. No, not the religious and New Year holidays. When I have to go back to my annual CBC predictions for the future year, and see whether I was truly prescient or a false [...]

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